Aast, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (March 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated page}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Aast
Commune
Town hall
Coat of arms
show Location of Aast Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Aast Aast Show map of FranceShow map of Nouvelle-AquitaineShow all
Coordinates: 43°17′25″N 0°05′21″W / 43.2903°N 0.0892°W / 43.2903; -0.0892Coordinates: 43°17′25″N 0°05′21″W / 43.2903°N 0.0892°W / 43.2903; -0.0892
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Pau
Canton	Vallées de l'Ousse et du Lagoin
Intercommunality
Government
• Mayor (2020-2026)	Jean-François Garnier
Area 1	4.75 km2 (1.83 sq mi)
Population  (Jan. 2018)[1]	185
• Density	39/km2 (100/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Aastais, Aastaises
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	64001 /64460
Elevation	367–393 m (1,204–1,289 ft) (avg. 390 m or 1,280 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Aast (French pronunciation: ​[as(t)], locally [ɑ̃ːs])^[2] is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France.

The inhabitants are known as Aastais.^[3]

Geography[]

Location[]

The village is situated on the plateau of Ger and is composed of a dozen scattered houses. Aast is 20 km east of Pau and 20 km north of Lourdes. Access to the commune is by road D70 then D311 north-east from Gardères, road D64 north-west from Ger, and road D311 when coming south from Ponson-Dessus. Other country roads can also be used to access the commune.^[4]

Hydrography[]

Located in the Drainage basin of the Adour, Aast is traversed by the Carbouère stream, a tributary of the Louet river.^[5]

Localities and hamlets[]

^[6]

Neighbouring communes and villages[]

Toponymy[]

Aast is the first French commune in alphabetical order. Previously, Aas, another commune in the Lower Pyrenees, came first until 1861, when it merged with the commune of Assouste to form the new commune of Eaux-Bonnes.

The commune's Béarnais name is also Aast.

According to Dauzat and Rostaing Aast comes from the Basque ast ("rock"). This seems unlikely given the physical setting. Michel Grosclaude^[2] suggests that the name of the town derives from an anthroponym composed of Aner + Aster. Brigitte Jobbé-Duval^[7] recalls that in 1429, Aast appeared as Hast, which means lance, and therefore advanced the theory that Aast could refer to a battle that occurred there.

The following table details the origins of the commune name.

Name	Spelling	Date	Source	Page	Origin	Description
Aast	Hast	1429	Raymond	1	Census	Village
	Ast	1544	Raymond	1	Reformation
	Aast	1750	Cassini

Sources:

• Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. (in French)^[8]
• Cassini: Cassini Map from 1750^[9]

Origins:

• Census: Census of Montaner^[10]
• Reformation: Reformation of Béarn^[11]

History[]

There was a Lay Abbey in Aast which was abolished in 1791. The Lordship of Aast was owned by the Day family from 1674 until the French Revolution. In 1678, Jérome de Day, adviser to the king, bought the abbey and tithes with rights of patronage: he was to provide a priest and entitled to receive a portion of the tithe, to sit in the choir, to be first to receive the blessed bread, and to be buried in the church.^{[citation needed]}

Heraldry[]

Blazon: Argent, two halberds sable saltirewise with an inescutcheon gules with two cows collared and belled in Or passing one over the other debruised in fess point overall.[12][13]

Administration[]

List of Successive Mayors of Aast^[14]

Mayors from 1942

From	To	Name	Party	Position
1942	1944	Dominique Picourlat
1944	1945	Célestin Tisné Daban
1945	1945	Jean Sylvain Lascassies
1945	1949	Célestin Tisné Daban
1949	1983	Jean Lassus
1983	2008	Jean-Noël Lacourrège	RPR then UMP	General Councillor
2008	2019	Romain Morlanne	DVD
2020	2026	Jean-François Garnier

Population[]

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 140 —     1800 138 −0.21% 1806 140 +0.24% 1821 173 +1.42% 1831 168 −0.29% 1836 175 +0.82% 1841 167 −0.93% 1846 188 +2.40% 1851 206 +1.85% 1856 220 +1.32% 1861 237 +1.50% 1866 209 −2.48% 1872 213 +0.32% 1876 199 −1.69% 1881 190 −0.92% 1886 183 −0.75% 1891 200 +1.79% 1896 214 +1.36% 1901 186 −2.77% 1906 191 +0.53% 1911 183 −0.85% 1921 160 −1.33% 1926 167 +0.86%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1931 145 −2.79% 1936 140 −0.70% 1946 126 −1.05% 1954 140 +1.33% 1962 140 +0.00% 1968 203 +6.39% 1975 115 −7.80% 1982 140 +2.85% 1990 163 +1.92% 1999 190 +1.72% 2006 182 −0.61% 2007 181 −0.55% 2008 181 +0.00% 2009 193 +6.63% 2010 192 −0.52% 2011 188 −2.08% 2012 183 −2.66% 2013 178 −2.73% 2014 177 −0.56% 2015 173 −2.26% 2016 177 +2.31% 2017 181 +2.26% 2018 185 +2.21%
Source: EHESS (1793-1999)[15] and INSEE[16][17]

Politics[]

Presidential Elections Second Round:^[18]

Election		Winning Candidate	Party	%
	2017	Emmanuel Macron	EM	77.97
	2012	Nicolas Sarkozy	UMP	53.08
	2007	Nicolas Sarkozy	UMP	53.52
	2002	Jacques Chirac	RPR	84.83

Culture and Heritage[]

Civil heritage[]

The town has a number of old farmhouses:

• The Fray Farmhouse (17th century)^[19]
• A Farmhouse at Bayet (19th century)^[20]
• Houses and Farms (18th and 19th century)^[21]

Religious Heritage[]

The Church of Saint Martin (1854)^[22] dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours was built under Napoleon III during the administration of Mayor Bartholomew Lassus. Recently renovated by the artist Villarubias, there are many objects in the church registered as historical objects:

• A Processional Lantern (18th century)^[23]
• A Thurible (17th century)^[24]
• A Pail for holy water (19th century)^[25]
• A Painting: Christ on the cross with the Virgin, Saint Madeleine and Saint Martin (18th century)^[26]
• 2 Paintings: Saint Martin Bishop, and the Charity of St. Martin (19th century)^[27]
• Statue: Saint Joseph (19th century)^[28]
• Altar Pulpit (19th century)^[29]
• A Pulpit (18th century)^[30]
• 2 Altars and Tabernacles (19th century)^[31]
• The Main Altar (19th century)^[32]
• 5 stained glass windows by Henri Gesta (1927)^[33]
• The Furniture in the Church^[34]

See also[]

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

References[]

External links[]

• Aast on Lion1906
• Aast on the 1750 Cassini Map

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aast.